Yuria was asleep, dreaming. The old man had brought out beds and a vacant room for them to stay in.

She seldom dreamed and often slept quietly, but this time a memory came to her in her sleep. She was young and was sleeping on a worn mat in the backstreets of her village, others were scattered around, with no family and with no home.

It was nearing dawn and she was checking all the things that she had gathered the day prior. A few coins, scraps of cloth and pieces of wood. She also had acquired some thrown out bread to eat.

She checked each one and checked to see if they were moldy. She ate the ones without the mold and then removed the moldy parts from the moldy bread.

She also found a rusty knife which she carefully examined and set aside. She began to go to sleep, but she heard a sound coming from the alleys.

She heard bone crunching and momentarily muffled screams. She hid in what little covers she had and huddled in fear. There was someone who managed to wake up in time, and Yuria head the sounds of footsteps before a loud snapping noise.

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She trembled at every sound that emerged and heard the slow steps of the creature coming towards her. It snarled and lunged at her. She faced the beast and closed her eyes.

When she opened them, it lay dead before her. She had the knife in her hands and used it to defend herself.

She began picking at it like she had done to garbage or abandoned containers and found the flesh of the beast to be unappealing to the palate.

But as she dug, the spine of the creature caught her eye and she tore it out with haste. She grabbed the spine but before long she fell asleep of exhaustion.

Morning came and some ill-meaning men came upon the gruesome scene, they had expected the carcass when they saw the young Yuria.

They planned to sell her as a servant, or other fates much worse. Yet when Yuria awoke, the corpses of the beast’s victims, the beast itself as well as the townsfolk were nowhere to be seen.

But she had clutched the spine of the beast closely through the morning, like a noble's child would to a stuffed animal. No beast had ever come to her until recently, and in the suffocating darkness she found comfort and she held onto it, as her possession of it was the only light she had ever had.